My main point of interest is organ donation which I have worked with intensively the last four years. My focus is on donor families, meaning the families who consented to donate their loved ones organs and have been confronted with the brain death criteria and the option to donate.

In Denmark, there are no organized follow-up initiatives for donor families and they get almost no public attention. Therefore I chose to conduct research in the US, where there is a huge attention towards the needs of donor families at the hospital as well as after they have donated and an interest in telling their stories.

The empirical background for my Thesis was a 4 month fieldwork in late 2005 in the Donor Family Sevices department at the New York Organ Donor Network. There I learned about the Aftercare program and interviewed several donor families, employees and organ recipients and participated in numerous meetings and events. In June 2006, I conducted a follow-up fieldwork at the Transplant Games in Kentucky.

Based on this thorough research, my Thesis shows that donor families benefit a lot from receiving follow-up support and information from the organization. Many families find joy in participating in organizational events and ceremonies, meet other donor families and share their stories, meet organ recipients (not necessarily their own) and do public speaking about their experiences with organ donation.
My study also revealed that is important for donor families to receive a thank you for donation organs, to get proper information, to feel their late family member is never forgotten and to be a part of a donor family community where they can help and support others, and thereby help themselves.